An Important Debate
by kpmh2001
Summary: The General and Preston help two scavengers answer an important question. A teaser one-shot for an upcoming Fallout story, see authors note for further details.


**The Commonwealth**

**North of Oberland Station**

Having no truly urgent objective was exceptionally rare for the General of the Minutemen. Obviously the large overarching objectives lingered over his head like a piano held delicately above, ready to come crashing down at any moment. But for now, things were peaceful, at least as peaceful as things got in the Commonwealth.

Himself, his second in command Preston Garvey, and his pet dog Dogmeat were taking a trip down to Oberland Station. It was still one of the most dangerous settlements that was a part of the Minutemen even after several threats had been taken out. Preston had been the one to suggest making their way to the settlement, arguing it was in the most danger and demanded their presence the most, and the General agreed.

The journey had been uneventful, filled with idle discussion about previous events and improvements to be made to the Minutemen as a whole. The only real occurrence of significance was when Dogmeat rushed off into a roadside bush and emerged with a golf club, which they elected to keep.

"Who knows, maybe we can use it for something." The General had argued.

"As long as you're carrying it." Preston had replied with that sense of joking optimism.

But all of that was behind them, as they crossed the bridge just north of Oberland Station Preston spotted a pair of people sitting on the side of the river by a campfire. Neither looked like a raider, and neither of them were wearing any true armor, just heavy leather clothes to keep off the cold.

"Probably scavengers." The General noted aloud.

"Why do you think they made a fire during the day?" Preston asked.

"I can't honestly say. Maybe they're just purifying some water." The General guessed.

"We could go check it out. Who knows, maybe they could use some help." Preston suggested.

"They don't look like they need anything, but I don't see why not, let's go." The General said.

Once they had finished crossing the bridge they made a brief detour to where the two men were sitting, obviously having a heated discussion. It was apparently so intense that neither of them noticed the approaching Minutemen.

"Look man I've been thinking about this for a long, long time. I know what I'm talking about here." The first man said.

"Bullshit." The other countered. "You can't just put something between two pieces of bread, and claim it's a sandwich! Does that mean a loaf of bread is technically a, uh, bread sandwich?"

"Yes technically but…" the first man said. "Hey Mikey, behind you."

"Wha-" Mikey said before turning around and noticing the Minutemen and their canine companion. "Hey! No, wait, this is good, they can help us sort this out."

"Oh boy." The other man said with mock enthusiasm.

"How're you gents doing?" The General asked.

"Doing fine, name's Mikey, that's Moss." Mikey said, introducing his friend.

"Hey." Moss said, obviously somewhat exhausted.

"Nice to meet you." Preston said. "I'm Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen."

"Oh shit, yeah we heard about you guys on the radio." Moss said before turning to the General. "So he's the General then?"

"Certainly am." He said.

"Ok, maybe you can help us then." Mikey said. "What exactly makes a sandwich a sandwich?"

The General watched as Preston's shoulders slumped ever so slightly, and he understood why, Preston loved helping people, no doubt he was hoping they had a more serious problem. The General on the other hand grinned, debating any subject was his favorite thing to do.

"Well I suppose it's a composition of several types of food, at least two, one of which is usually bread." The General answered.

"See! He agrees!" Mikey said, elated, turning to Moss with smug satisfaction.

"Well yeah, but I've seen salads with bread, and that fits the description too." Moss countered.

Huh, he's actually right. The General thought.

Preston sighed, no doubt he wanted no part of this, but he contributed irregardless. "Alright, well what would you suggest a Sandwich is?"

"It's all about how you hold it, you hold it with both hands, one on each side." Moss said, demonstrated with his own Mirelurk sandwich.

That's overcooked, but then again, cooking Mirelurk meat is a bitch. The General thought.

"So, is a loaf of bread a bread sandwich then?" Mikey countered.

"Well technically yes, but you wouldn't eat it all at once. Again, it's about how you hold it." Moss said.

"So if I made a nice sandwich and put it in a cup of water it wouldn't a sandwich anymore?" The General said with a grin. Preston groaned, knowing from experience that he could go for hours.

"Well I know I wouldn't want to eat it, that's for damn sure." Moss said, obviously disgusted.

"I love how that's the limit. You'll eat that damn mirelurk stuff, but you won't even consider-" Mikey argued but was interrupted by Preston.

"Hey now, Mirelurk meat ain't so bad, if you ignore the smell." Preston said.

That's all you need to snag someone in a debate. Something they like getting called garbage. The General thought with a smirk.

With Preston now ensnared fully in the debate, the battle was on, what exactly was a sandwich? The violence-free conflict spanned a little over an hour, before at last all four eventually reached some form of agreement.

"Ok, so it needs bread, that acts as a casing." The General said first.

"Then it needs something in the middle, cheese, chicken, brahmin…" Mikey continued.

"Or Mirelurk." Preston added.

"Yeah yeah, I guess." Mikey relented.

"And finally, it needs to be made of different things, like, a loaf of bread is a single thing, but two slices is two things." Moss finished.

"Well, glad that's settled, thanks guys." Mikey said.

"No problem, I guess." Preston said.

"Say, is that settlement down south a bit yours?" Moss asked.

"Yup, Oberland Station." The General said, he was fairly confident these men posed no threat.

"We were looking for a place to stop for a bit, rest for a while. You got any problems with us coming to bunk with you guys for a bit?" Moss asked.

"No problems at all, we were on our way there actually." The General said.

"Can Oberland fit two more people General?" Preston asked.

"Easily, last I heard they were working on a whole new shack." The General said. "Heck they were complaining about needing more hands."

"Alright then, you folks care to join us?" Preston Garvey asked.

"Sure, let me get my stuff." Mikey said.

Just like that, two new settlers. Temporary ones sure but there's strength in numbers, another win in my book. The General thought.

**Authors note: I certainly hope you enjoyed this little side project of mine. I had a burst of writing inspiration and thought this would make a good one shot teaser for my long term upcoming fallout 4 story. Simply put, I wanted to sort of rework Fallout 4, make it more like some of the older games, keep to its roots and not whatever the hell Fallout 76 is. I don't know if I'm going to do more of these, the answer is probably no, since I still need to focus on The Men From Onyx, either way, let me know what you think.**


End file.
